getting goats soon, lot of questions =)

[freemotion]

I'm going from one Alpine to possibly four in milk this spring! Woohoo! Two will be first fresheners, one will be a second freshener, one will be my big producer.....Milk! Cheese! Yogurt! Kefir! Ice cream! Pudding! Cream soups! Chowders! And on, and on, and on..... You can never have enough.

 

[iamcuriositycat]

I don't have a ton of experience, but I love our two little Nigerian dwarf wethers, and want to get a ND milking doe soon. They are sweet, funny, and easy to manage. As someone else said, I am a small female without a lot of muscle power, but I can pick one of my full-grown boys up and carry him if I have to (not far, but still!).

Mostly, I don't have to carry them, though--a feed bucket is a highly effective motivator most of the time, plus they want to be near me and are easy to train in basic manners (not to get into the feed shed, for instance, and not to jump up on the gate when I'm trying to open it).

That may all be true of other small breeds, but I think ND's are an excellent choice.

One other thing, though, that I know from my experience and research with ducks (and that I'm sure carries over to goats), is that the specific line of the livestock matters sometimes as much as the breed. Locate a couple of good quality breeders in your area that select for milking ability and health and temperament (and other qualities that matter to you), and then base your choice of breed on what is available in high quality in your area.

As for the housing question, I've considered housing my goats with my ducks. I think the goats would provide a level of predator protection (not alone, but as an extra layer) to the ducks. But I haven't figured out how to do it effectively and easily. Ducks are very messy and will make water and mud into gross messes, so the goats would have to have a separate drinking facility, and furthermore it would be nearly impossible to keep the goats out of nesting boxes and duck (or chicken) feed. I have occasionally kept a drake or two in with the goats for a few days, feeding them separately, but it's not really a sustainable set-up.

They can definitely be allowed to range together during the day, though--no reason they can't share a pasture, as long as their night-time and feeding set-ups are separate.

Enjoy!